The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday dismissed a suit filed by Tigran Gambaryan, the former Head of Financial Crime Compliance at Binance, after finding it lacked merit.
Gambaryan had sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Security Adviser (NSA) in the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/356/2024, alleging his unlawful detention.
In his judgment, Justice Mohammed Umar held that the Applicant failed to establish that his fundamental rights had been violated.
Umar further stated that Gambaryan could not use the guise of enforcing his rights to persuade the court to interfere with the Nigerian authorities’ powers to investigate and prosecute suspected foreign exchange violations and alleged money laundering involving his former firm.
The court also noted that criminal charges filed by the Federal Government against the cryptocurrency trading platform, Binance Holdings Limited, are still pending.
The court stressed that affidavit evidence before it showed that Gambrayan was duly arraigned before trial Justice Emeka Nwite and subsequently remanded at a correctional center.
It further noted that the applicant’s bail request was refused after the trial court held that he posed a flight risk.
Umar held that from the affidavit evidence, it was clear that the office of the NSA acted on the strength of intelligence reports that bordered on alleged unlawful transactions by Binance and its officials.
He held that fundamental rights are not absolute as they may be curtailed under certain situations and for national interest.
The court maintained that in the instant case, both the EFCC and the NSA acted within their statutory mandates.
“No court has the power to stop the investigative powers of the police or EFCC,” Justice Umar held, adding that the Applicant failed to adduce any evidence to establish that he enjoyed immunity from prosecution in Nigeria or under the Nigerian law.
He further held that the suit constituted an abuse of the judicial process and deserved to be dismissed.
Gambaryan had approached the court, insisting that his rights were violated by Nigerian agencies.
Aside from praying the court to order both the EFCC and the NSA to issue a public apology to him for subjecting him to what he insisted was an unlawful detention, he equally prayed for monetary compensation.
Gambaryan and his colleague, Nadeem Anjarwalla, the Africa Regional Manager for Binance, were initially arrested and detained over their firm’s alleged involvement in money laundering and terrorism financing.
Although their international passports were seized, Anjarwalla subsequently escaped from custody and fled to Kenya.
Despite Anjarwalla’s escape, both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) filed separate criminal charges against the two individuals and Binance.
However, the charges against both Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were withdrawn on October 23, 2024, leaving only the company as the defendant in the case.
Binance, which is a crypto currency exchange platform that lists more than 350 digital currencies, serves as alternative form of payment, created, using encryption algorithms.
The court had ordered the firm to furnish the EFCC with the comprehensive information of all persons from Nigeria trading on its platform, as well as all its transaction history for a period of six months.
The order came after the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, on February 27, disclosed that about $26 billion passed through Binance from unidentified sources.
FG said it was investigating the possibility that the platform was used for money laundering and terrorism financing.
However, following a failed negotiation, the crypto firm, on March 8, discontinued all naira transactions on its exchange platform, with reports indicating that the government demanded $10 billion from the company as its retribution for profiting from “its illegal transactions” in Nigeria.
Some of the offences allegedly committed by the firm were said to be punishable under Sections 8 and 29 of the VAT Act of 1993, as amended, section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act, 2007 (as amended) as well as under the provisions of Section 94 of the Companies Income Tax Act (as amended).
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